Hedonic Responses Research Articles

Tmod2 Is a Regulator of Cocaine Responses through Control of Striatal and Cortical Excitability and Drug-Induced Plasticity.

Drugs of abuse induce neuroadaptations, including synaptic plasticity, that are critical for transition to addiction, and genes and pathways that regulate these neuroadaptations are potential therapeutic targets. Tropomodulin 2 (Tmod2) is an actin-regulating gene that plays an important role in synapse maturation and dendritic arborization and has been implicated in substance abuse and intellectual disability in humans. Here, we mine the KOMP2 data and find that Tmod2 knock-out mice show emotionality phenotypes that are predictive of addiction vulnerability. Detailed addiction phenotyping shows that Tmod2 deletion does not affect the acute locomotor response to cocaine administration. However, sensitized locomotor responses are highly attenuated in these knock-outs, indicating perturbed drug-induced plasticity. In addition, Tmod2 mutant animals do not self-administer cocaine indicating lack of hedonic responses to cocaine. Whole-brain MR imaging shows differences in brain volume across multiple regions, although transcriptomic experiments did not reveal perturbations in gene coexpression networks. Detailed electrophysiological characterization of Tmod2 KO neurons showed increased spontaneous firing rate of early postnatal and adult cortical and striatal neurons. Cocaine-induced synaptic plasticity that is critical for sensitization is either missing or reciprocal in Tmod2 KO nucleus accumbens shell medium spiny neurons, providing a mechanistic explanation of the cocaine response phenotypes. Combined, these data, collected from both males and females, provide compelling evidence that Tmod2 is a major regulator of plasticity in the mesolimbic system and regulates the reinforcing and addictive properties of cocaine.

How are irritability and anhedonia symptoms linked? A network approach.

Anhedonia and irritability are two prevalent symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) that predict greater depression severity and poor outcomes, including suicidality. Although both symptoms have been proposed to result from paradoxical reward processing dysfunctions, the interactions between these symptoms remain unclear. Anhedonia is a multifaceted symptom reflecting impairments in multiple dimensions of reward processing (e.g., pleasure, desire, motivation, and effort) across distinct reward types (e.g., food, sensory experiences, social activities, hobbies) that may differentially interact with irritability. This study investigated the complex associations between anhedonia and irritability using network analysis. Participants (N = 448, Mage = 33.29, SD = 14.58) reported their symptoms of irritability on the Brief Irritability Test (Holtzman et al., 2015) and anhedonia (i.e., pleasure, desire, motivation, and effort dimensions across four reward types) on the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (Rizvi et al., 2015). A regularized Gaussian Graphical Model was built to estimate the network structure between items. Irritability was negatively related to willingness to expand effort to obtain food/drinks (estimate = -0.18), social activities (-0.13), and hobbies (-0.12) rewards. Irritability was positively associated with a desire for food/drinks (0.12). Only a small proportion (5.8%) of our sample was clinical and the study design was cross-sectional. A specific link between irritability and the effort dimension of the hedonic response across three reward types was identified. Investigating effort expenditure deficits with experimental paradigms may help us understand the mechanisms underlying the comorbidity between irritability and anhedonia in the context of MDD.

Low resting metabolic rate and increased hunger due to β-MSH and β-endorphin deletion in a canine model.

Mutations that perturb leptin-melanocortin signaling are known to cause hyperphagia and obesity, but energy expenditure has not been well studied outside rodents. We report on a common canine mutation in pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), which prevents production of β-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (β-MSH) and β-endorphin but not α-MSH; humans, similar to dogs, produce α-MSH and β-MSH from the POMC propeptide, but rodents produce only α-MSH. We show that energy expenditure is markedly lower in affected dogs, which also have increased motivational salience in response to a food cue, indicating increased wanting or hunger. There was no difference in satiety at a modified ad libitum meal or in their hedonic response to food, nor disruption of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) or thyroid axes. In vitro, we show that β-MSH signals comparably to α-MSH at melanocortin receptors. These data implicate β-MSH and β-endorphin as important in determining hunger and moderating energy expenditure and suggest that this role is independent of the presence of α-MSH.

Parasocial Interaction on Indonesia’s Beauty Influencer: Antecedents and Consequences

Consumers' dependence on product reviews provided by other consumers makes consumers make social media influencers (SMI) a source of information and reference before purchasing products. The influence of SMI on their followers has led many beauty marketers to use social media influencers to communicate their products. However, the increasing use of influencer marketing by marketers has led to consumer suspicion of the authenticity of influencers. Therefore, based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, this study analyzes consumer behavior through the content attributes and interaction strategies exposed by social media influencers to followers, leading to consumers' internal perceptions of parasocial interaction, hedonic value, and utilitarian, and ultimately influencing consumers' response of purchase intention. This study used PLS-SEM as a data analysis technique using a sample of 363 respondents. The PLS-SEM results revealed that content attributes (i.e., attractiveness and prestige) and interaction strategies (i.e., interactivity) positively influence parasocial interaction and, in turn, lead to purchase intention. The results also show that parasocial interaction has a significant effect on hedonic (perceived transparency and perceived enjoyment) and utilitarian (informativeness and credibility) responses. It was also found that hedonic (perceived enjoyment) and utilitarian (credibility) responses significantly influenced purchase intention. Meanwhile, the hedonic response (perceived transparency) and utilitarian response (informativeness) did not significantly affect followers' purchase intention. This research demonstrates the role of content attributes and interaction strategies in creating parasocial interactions and the effects of parasocial interactions on hedonic, utilitarian and purchase intention responses. Based on the results of this study, marketers and influencers are advised to build intimate relationships with the audience to increase purchase intention. This relationship-building can be created through high interactive power, attractiveness, and prestige content. Then, it is also recommended to pay attention to aspects of audience comfort and maintain the credibility of influencers to shape the buying interest of the audience of social media influencer content.

Physical activity as a promoter of stress resilience: An analysis of behavioral effects and brain connectivity with cytochrome c-oxidase activity in adult male Wistar rats

Physical activity (PA) is very beneficial for physical and mental health. This study aims to examine the resilience-inducting effect of PA in adult male Wistar rats exposed to unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS). Furthermore, we analyzed the influence of PA on behavioral tasks and functional brain connectivity with cytochrome c oxidase technique. The cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) is a mitochondrial enzyme involved in oxidative phosphorylation and ATP generation. For this analysis, we included five groups: Basal (n = 10, to determine the basal level of brain activity), Behav (n = 15, subjected exclusively to behavioral tests), PA (n = 10, exposed to physical activity), UCMS (n = 15, subjected to a stress protocol) and PA + UCMS (n = 15, exposed to PA prior to stress). The UCMS protocol consisted of randomly presenting several different stressors over four consecutive weeks. We evaluated several behaviors of the Behav, UCMS, and PA + UCMS groups. This assessment includes the hedonic responses using the sucrose consumption task, unconditioned anxiety with the zero maze, and coping strategies assessed with the cat odor test. The UCMS group showed an anhedonia profile and increased anxiety compared with the other groups. Although in the exposure to cat odor test, the PA + UCMS remained for the same time in the cat odor compartment as the other groups, it did not approach the odor, showing that it detected the risk. This response is more adaptive than the responses of the UCMS and Behav groups. An exploratory analysis of the cerebral connections showed an increase in CCO activity in the UCMS group compared to the other groups. This overactivity was reduced in dorsal Cornu Ammonis 3(dCA3) by prior PA. In this region, PA + UCMS showed similar activity as the groups not subjected to chronic stress. Therefore, PA can prevent the harmful effects of chronic stress on dCA3.

Beyond Reality: Exploring the effect of different virtual reality environments on visual assessment of cakes

Visual assessment triggers physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses in consumer behavior. This confluence of signals can be influenced by context, which plays a crucial role in eating behavior. The strategies used to evoke scenarios that enhance ecological validity in sensory experiences have evolved in the last years to include immersive technologies and virtual reality (VR) to simulate the complexity of the real world and predict consumer preferences. This study explored VR's effect on visual liking and hedonic responses of five virtual cakes in two virtual contexts designed with advanced 3D modeling and photogrammetry techniques to ensure high realism and immersion. Although the virtual contexts themselves did not impact liking ratings, the variables “context-cake,“ ”age,“ and “subjective hunger” had a significant effect on the visual liking of cakes. A Check-All-That-Apply (CATA) questionnaire showed significant differences in responses for various terms related to the intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics of the five cakes. Finally, the internal preference map separated two consumer patterns of visual liking: traditional versus innovative.

Evaluating the Satisfaction of Passengers towards Metro Rail Services- Bangladesh Perspective

Bangladesh has launched the mass rapid transit (MRT) service for the first time in the transportation sector. The MRT has significantly brought access to instantaneous communication in one of the congested cities, Dhaka. Since the service is a brand-new offering in Bangladesh, there is a complete gap in research in this sector. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of service quality dimensions on passengers’ satisfaction with MRT in Bangladesh. The researchers used a convenient sampling method and collected primary data from 251 respondents who consumed the MRT service frequently. Using the reliable software Smart PLS 3.0, the data were analyzed. The researchers have examined Cronbach’s alpha, composite reliability, and average variance extracted (AVE) to test the reliability and validity of the collected data. This study finds that the constructs namely tangibility, responsiveness, assurance, hedonic motivation, and price value are significant in determining passengers’ satisfaction with MRT. Price value is more significant followed by hedonic motivation and responsiveness. In contrast, statistics reveal that reliability and empathy are insignificant in nature.

Innovation of Local Food of Banten-Palm-Sugar-Soybean-Extract Powder as a Nutritious Sweetener and Drink

Palm sugar is one of the potential commodities in Banten Province, Indonesia. The palm sugar-based innovations are needed to increase the palm sugar market. One of the innovations proposed in this research was the production of palm sugar-soybean extract which can be used as a powdered drink or sweetener in a practical form. This research aimed to study the effect of the palm sugar to soybean extract ratio on the hedonic test responses and nutritional value. Palm sugar solution and soybean extract were mixed in various ratios namely 80:20, 70:30, and 60:40 on a volume basis. The solution mixture was heated to evaporate all water and form a palm sugar-soybean extract crystal. The crystal was then crushed and sieved into an 80-mesh powder. The ratio of 70:30 resulted in the best product composition which obtained “like very much” responses and contained the best nutritional value namely 91.15 % of total sugar, 4.66 % of protein, and 1.12 % of fat. The products also contained antioxidants and essential elements.

Hedonic rating coupled with sensory profiles using CATA for six whole roasted or deep-fried insects among Danish 11-13-year-old children

The consumption of insects is not rooted in traditional Western culture, which creates a barrier to integrate insects into our diets, especially among preadolescents. This study was executed during a Danish science outreach week to educate children on eating insects through educational activities. 11–13-y.o. children were invited to taste six different types of whole roasted or deep-fried insects (grasshoppers, cricket, bee larvae, wax moth larvae, buffalo worms and mealworms), asked to rate their liking (15-point hedonic scale) and describe the sensory properties for each insect (50 sensory attributes using Check-All-That-Apply format). Food neophobia was assessed using the Food Neophobia Test Tool to explore the link between food neophobia and hedonic responses of insects. Results showed significant differences in sensory and hedonic responses (p < 0.0001, respectively) between insect types. In general, insects showed low mean liking. They were distributed in two significantly different groups. Mealworms (6.9), buffalo worms (6.6), and bee larvae (6.4) had higher mean liking compared to crickets (5.2), wax moth larvae (5.1), and grasshoppers (4.7). Furthermore, 19 descriptors discriminated between insects demonstrating that insects vary in sensory characteristics. “Crunchy” was significantly associated with liking, highlighting the importance of this sensory attribute when promoting the consumption of edible insects in preadolescents. Insect liking decreased with increasing levels of food neophobia, which was also affected by age- and gender. The study offers new insights into the acceptance and sensory properties of commercial insects that can be used to promote insect consumption and for future product development targeted at this group.

Accumbal μ-opioid receptors and salt taste-elicited hedonic responses in a rodent model of prenatal adversity, and their correlates using human functional genomics

Prenatal adversity is associated with behavioral obesogenic features such as preference for palatable foods. Salt appetite may play a role in the development of adiposity and its consequences in individuals exposed to prenatal adversity, and sodium consumption involves individual differences in accumbal µ-opioid receptors function. We investigated the hedonic responses to salt and the levels of µ-opioid receptors and tyrosine hydroxylase in the nucleus accumbens (Nacc) of pups from an animal model of prenatal dietary restriction. In children, we evaluated the interaction between fetal growth and the genetic background associated with the accumbal µ-opioid receptor gene (OPRM1) expression on sodium consumption during a snack test. Sprague-Dawley dams were randomly allocated from pregnancy day 10 to receive an ad libitum (Adlib) or a 50% restricted (FR) diet. The pups’ hedonic responses to a salt solution (NaCl 2%) or water were evaluated on the first day of life. FR and Adlib pups differ in their hedonic responses to salt, and there were decreased levels of accumbal µ-opioid and p-µ-opioid receptors in FR pups. In humans, a test meal and genotyping from buccal epithelial cells were performed in 270 children (38 intrauterine growth restricted—IUGR) at 4 years old from a Canadian prospective cohort (MAVAN). The OPRM1 genetic score predicted the sodium intake in IUGR children, but not in controls. The identification of mechanisms involved in the brain response to prenatal adversity and its consequences in behavioral phenotypes and risk for chronic diseases later in life is important for preventive and therapeutic purposes.

Long-term impacts of prenatal maternal immune activation and postnatal maternal separation on maternal behavior in adult female rats: Relevance to postpartum mental disorders

Early life adversities are known to exert long-term negative impacts on psychological and brain functions in adulthood. The present work examined how a prenatal brain insult and a postnatal stressor independently or interactively influence the quality of maternal care of postpartum female rats and their cognitive and emotional functions, as a way to identify the behavioral dysfunctions underlying childhood trauma-induced postpartum mental disorders (as indexed by impaired maternal care). Sprague-Dawley female offspring born from mother rats exposed to polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid (PolyI:C, 4.0–6.0 mg/kg) intended to cause gestational maternal immune activation (MIA) or saline were subjected to a repeated maternal separation stress (RMS, 3 h/day) or no separation for 9 days in the first two weeks of life (a 2 × 2 design). When these offspring became mothers, their attentional filtering ability (as measured in the prepulse inhibition of acoustic startle reflex test), positive hedonic response (as measured in the sucrose preference test), and negative emotional response (as measured in the startle reflex and fear-potentiated startle test) were examined, along with their home-cage maternal behavior. Virgin littermates served as controls in all the behavioral tests except in maternal behavior. Results showed that mother rats who experienced RMS displayed impaired nest building and crouching/nursing activities. RMS also interacted with MIA to alter pup retrieval latency and startle reactivity, such that MIA-RMS dams demonstrated significantly slower pup retrieval latency and higher startle magnitude compared to either RMS-only and MIA-only mothers. MIA also disrupted attentional filtering ability, with significantly lower prepulse inhibition. However, neither prenatal MIA nor postnatal RMS impaired sucrose preference or the acquisition of fear-potentiated startle. These results indicate that prenatal stress and postnatal adversity could impair maternal behavior individually, and interact with each other, causing impairments in attention, emotion and maternal motivation.

Musical anhedonia, timbre, and the rewards of music listening

Pleasure in music has been linked to predictive coding of melodic and rhythmic patterns, subserved by connectivity between regions in the brain's auditory and reward networks. Specific musical anhedonics derive little pleasure from music and have altered auditory-reward connectivity, but no difficulties with music perception abilities and no generalized physical anhedonia. Recent research suggests that specific musical anhedonics experience pleasure in nonmusical sounds, suggesting that the implicated brain pathways may be specific to music reward. However, this work used sounds with clear real-world sources (e.g., babies laughing, crowds cheering), so positive hedonic responses could be based on the referents of these sounds rather than the sounds themselves. We presented specific musical anhedonics and matched controls with isolated short pleasing and displeasing synthesized sounds of varying timbres with no clear real-world referents. While the two groups found displeasing sounds equally displeasing, the musical anhedonics gave substantially lower pleasure ratings to the pleasing sounds, indicating that their sonic anhedonia is not limited to musical rhythms and melodies. Furthermore, across a large sample of participants, mean pleasure ratings for pleasing synthesized sounds predicted significant and similar variance in six dimensions of musical reward considered to be relatively independent, suggesting that pleasure in sonic timbres play a role in eliciting reward-related responses to music. We replicate the earlier findings of preserved pleasure ratings for semantically referential sounds in musical anhedonics and find that pleasure ratings of semantic referents, when presented without sounds, correlated with ratings for the sounds themselves. This association was stronger in musical anhedonics than in controls, suggesting the use of semantic knowledge as a compensatory mechanism for affective sound processing. Our results indicate that specific musical anhedonia is not entirely specific to melodic and rhythmic processing, and suggest that timbre merits further research as a source of pleasure in music.

The auditory phenotype of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia

AbstractBackgroundPatients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia commonly exhibit abnormal hedonic and other behavioural responses to sounds, however hearing dysfunction in this disorder is poorly characterised. Here we addressed this issue using the Queen Square Tests of Auditory Cognition (QSTAC) – a neuropsychological battery for the systematic assessment of central auditory functions (including pitch pattern perception, environmental sound recognition, sound localisation and emotion processing) in cognitively impaired people.MethodThe QSTAC was administered to 15 patients with behavioural variant frontotempoal dementia, 24 patients with comparator dementia syndromes (primary progressive aphasia and typical Alzheimer’s disease) and 15 healthy age‐matched individuals. Participants also had pure tone audiometry to assess peripheral hearing function and a comprehensive general neuropsychological assessment.ResultAfter accounting for nonverbal executive and peripheral hearing performance, patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia showed deficits of environmental sound and auditory emotion recognition and sound localisation, compared both with healthy controls and patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia were further differentiated from primary progressive aphasia patients on their performance across QSTAC (sound recognition and localisation) subtests.ConclusionBehavioural variant frontotemporal dementia has a distinct phenotype of auditory cognitive dysfunction which likely contributes to the hearing alterations that many patients with this diagnosis experience in daily life. Our findings call attention to an under‐recognised issue in frontotemporal dementia that warrants further clinical interpretation and the development of management strategies tailored to real‐world acoustic environments.

Reversal of Conditioned Food Aversion Using a Cognitive Intervention: A Sham-Controlled, Randomized, Parallel Study

Background: Aversive conditioning weakens the gratifying value of a comfort meal. The aim was to determine the effect of a cognitive intervention to reverse aversive conditioning and restore hedonic postprandial response. Methods: This was a randomized, sham-controlled, single-blind, parallel study that was conducted on 12 healthy women (n = 6 in each group). The reward value of a comfort meal was measured on different days: at initial exposure, after aversive conditioning (administration of the same meal with a masked fat overload on the previous day) and after a cognitive intervention (disclosing the aversive conditioning paradigm in the test group vs. no explanation in the control group). The primary outcome, digestive wellbeing, was determined using graded scales at regular intervals before and after ingestion. Results: At initial exposure, the comfort meal produced a rewarding experience that was impaired using aversive conditioning; upon re-exposure to the original meal, the cognitive intervention increased meal wanting and liking; improved digestive wellbeing and mood; tended to reduce postprandial satiety, bloating/fullness; and abolished discomfort/pain, thereby restoring the hedonic value of the comfort meal. By contrast, sham intervention had no effects, and the postprandial sensations remained like the responses to the offending meal. Conclusion: In this proof-of-concept study, we demonstrate that in healthy women, a mild, short-term acquired aversion to a comfort meal can be reversed using a cognitive intervention. ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT05897411.

Need for cognition moderates the relief of avoiding cognitive effort.

When making decisions, humans aim to maximize rewards while minimizing costs. The exertion of mental or physical effort has been proposed to be one those costs, translating into avoidance of behaviors carrying effort demands. This motivational framework also predicts that people should experience positive affect when anticipating demand that is subsequently avoided (i.e., a "relief effect"), but evidence for this prediction is scarce. Here, we follow up on a previous study [1] that provided some initial evidence that people more positively evaluated outcomes if it meant they could avoid performing an additional demanding task. However, the results from this study did not provide conclusive evidence that this effect was driven by effort avoidance. Here, we report two experiments that are able to do this. Participants performed a gambling task, and if they did not receive reward they would have to perform an orthogonal effort task. Prior to the gamble, a cue indicated whether this effort task would be easy or hard. We probed hedonic responses to the reward-related feedback, as well as after the subsequent effort task feedback. Participants reported lower hedonic responses for no-reward outcomes when high vs. low effort was anticipated (and later exerted). They also reported higher hedonic responses for reward outcomes when high vs. low effort was anticipated (and avoided). Importantly, this relief effect was smaller in participants with high need for cognition. These results suggest that avoidance of high effort tasks is rewarding, but that the size off this effect depends on the individual disposition to engage with and expend cognitive effort. They also raise the important question of whether this disposition alters the cost of effort per se, or rather offset this cost during cost-benefit analyses.

Emotional response to healthier foods: Influence of culture and health consciousness.

Sugar, salt, and fat content in processed products are important concerns for consumers. Hence, alternative "healthy" versions of conventional foods such as chocolate, potato chips, and yogurt are offered. This work aimed to define the emotional response of consumers from different cultural backgrounds (Spain vs. Brazil) evoked by healthier versions of conventional products and the relationship between hedonic responses and health consciousness. A total of 186 Brazilian and 152 Spanish consumers participated in this online cross-cultural study. Participants answered a Health Consciousness Questionnaire and an emotional check-all-that-applies questionnaire using picture stimuli of conventional chocolate, potato chips, and yogurt and their healthier versions with less sugar, salt, and fat content, respectively. The Brazilians' emotional responses were more diverse for all stimuli compared to the Spaniards'. However, participants from both cultures rated an average of "slightly agree" on the health consciousness scale; a higher level of consumption, liking, and willingness to buy; and a higher frequency of positive emotional terms for the stimuli of conventional products compared to their healthier versions. A higher frequency of evocation of "active" is strongly associated with higher levels of health consciousness. Strategic actions by the food industry and government must consider cultural, emotional, and health-conscious factors to encourage the consumption of healthier foods. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Food manufacturers can use the information obtained from this study to create healthier versions of their products that appeal to consumers' emotional responses and health consciousness levels. The findings can assist in designing strategic actions to promote healthier food consumption by emphasizing the benefits of healthier food choices and making them more appealing to consumers. The methodology employed in this study can also be applied to further studies aimed to assess emotional responses to food stimuli across different cultures.

An evaluation of hedonic responses in taste-potentiated odor aversion using the analysis of licking microstructure and orofacial reactivity

Two experiments examined the hedonic responses conditioned to odor cues in the phenomenon of taste-potentiated odor aversion. Experiment 1 analyzed the microstructure of licking behavior during voluntary consumption. A tasteless odor (amyl acetate) was delivered to rats either diluted in water or mixed with saccharin before being injected with LiCl. At test, subjects which had received the odor-taste compound during conditioning showed both lower odor consumption and lick cluster size, a result indicating an increased negative evaluation of the odor. Experiment 2 examined the orofacial reactions elicited by the odor as index of its hedonic impact. During conditioning, the rats were intraorally infused with either the odor alone or the odor-saccharin compound before being injected with LiCl. At test, they were infused with the odor and their orofacial responses video recorded. More aversive orofacial responses were elicited by the odor cue in rats that had compound conditioning, again a result indicating a strengthened negative hedonic reactivity compared to animals experiencing odor aversion conditioning alone. Taken together, these results indicate that taste-mediated potentiation of odor aversion conditioning impacts on the acquisition of conditioned hedonic reactions as well as consumption.

Antidepressant Medication Does Not Contribute to the Elevated Circulating Concentrations of Acylethanolamides Found in Substance Use Disorder Patients.

Circulating acylethanolamides (NAEs) are bioactive signaling molecules that modulate multiple homeostatic functions including mood and hedonic responses. Variations in their plasma concentrations are associated with substance use disorders (SUD) and recent studies suggest that psychotropic medication might influence its circulating levels, limiting its use as a clinical biomarker of addiction. In addition, they might have a role as mediators of the pharmacological effects of psychotropic drugs. Thus, in mild depression, the response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor-type antidepressants (SSRI) is associated with a marked increase in circulating NAEs. To further investigate if antidepressants are able to modify the plasma concentration of NAEs in SUD patients, we analyzed the circulating levels of NAEs in 333 abstinent and 175 healthy controls on the basis of the treatment with SSRI antidepressants. As described previously, SUD patients display higher concentrations of NAEs than those measured in a control population. This increase was not further modified by antidepressant therapy. Only marginal increases in palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), oleoylethanolamide (OEA), or docosatetraenoyl-ethanolamide (DEA) were found, and the net effect was very small. Thus, our study shows that treatment with SSRI-type antidepressants does not modify the clinical utility of monitoring enhanced NAE production as biomarkers of SUD. In addition, the possibility that a blunted NAE response to antidepressant therapy might be related to the loss of efficacy of SSRIs in dual depression emerges as an attractive hypothesis that needs to be addressed in future studies.

The energy content of meals with a similar macronutrient distribution may have a greater impact on appetite sensations than food preferences in adolescents with obesity: A secondary analysis

PurposeThe energy and macronutrient composition of a meal has been shown to influence postprandial appetitive responses, but it is not clear how energy content independent of macronutrient distribution affects postprandial appetite in adolescents with obesity. Extracting data from a primary study testing the effect of energy turnover on appetite, this secondary analysis assessed how fixed meals varying in energy content with similar macronutrient distributions influences postprandial appetite sensations and food reward. MethodsUsing a randomised, counterbalanced crossover design, N = 14 adolescents with obesity (Mage = 12.71, SDage = 0.99; 10 female) consumed fixed lunch meals with similar macronutrient content starting at 750 kcal in energy and progressively increasing by 250 kcal on three different test days. Liking and wanting for food images varying in fat and taste were assessed at baseline and immediately after meal consumption. Appetite sensations were assessed in half-hour intervals from baseline to 1-h post-meal. ResultsThe area under the curve for subjective hunger (p < .001, ω = 0.36), desire to eat (p < .001, ω = 0.54), and prospective food consumption (p = .004, ω = 0.32) were significantly lower after consumption of the higher calorie meals relative to the lowest. Explicit wanting for sweet foods increased after intake of the intermediate calorie meal yet decreased after the highest calorie meal (p = .014, ω = 0.09). Conversely, implicit wanting sweet bias increased after consumption of the test meal independent of energy content (p < .001, ω = 0.15). ConclusionThe consumption of additional calories without a meaningful change in macronutrient distribution may affect appetite sensations more reliably than hedonic responses to energy-dense foods in adolescents with obesity.

How sweet is too sweet? Measuring sweet taste preferences and liking in familiar and unfamiliar foods amongst Dutch consumers

Sweet taste preference and liking have been assessed with various methods, yet there is no consensus in the literature on which method is most sensitive across a range of foods. The current studies explored several methods to assess sweet taste preference, liking and perceived intensity across various familiar and unfamiliar foods in Dutch consumers. In experiment 1, five different sweet foods, each with five sweetness concentration levels were evaluated on preference, liking and perceived intensity, using two methods for measuring liking and preference: ranking (n = 10), rating (n = 10); one for measuring perceived intensity: rating (n = 10); and one combining preference, liking and perceived intensity: structured napping (n = 10). The ranking method, despite having the highest discriminative power, gave no indication of inter-sample spacing nor absolute scores. In subsequent studies, ranking was thus combined with rating as “Ranking on a scale” (RoS). Experiments 2 (N = 31), 3 (N = 28) and 4 (N = 28) tested the RoS method across various familiar and unfamiliar foods and/or food forms. In Experiments 2 and 4, inverted-U-shaped hedonic responses were observed for all foods, and differences in preference for different sweetness concentration levels were detected. Experiments 3 and 4 showed that familiar foods were more liked than unfamiliar ones across all sweetness levels (Experiment 3 (F(1,1322) = 14.8, p <.001); Experiment 4 (F(1,803) = 38.1, p <.001)). Hence, RoS seems to be a viable method for assessing sweet taste preferences in both familiar and unfamiliar foods, among consumers. In future work we will apply this method to better understand the role of sweet taste exposure on preferences for a range of sweet foods.